Teacher+Topics

=Teacher Topics= Starting Out Managing student behaviour Encouraging student participation ** My students keep losing their password ** ** Managing the workload ** Students without access to edmodo Professional Development Resources Co-Teaching

Starting Out
//This is a skeleton for what will soon become a two or three page "starting kit".//

**Are you ready?**

 * **What equipment do you need before you start?** A computer, an internet browser (Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Firefox, Safari, etc) and a live connection to the internet.
 * **What technical skills do you need?** Not much - if you can comfortably use an internet browser to read the Sydney Morning Herald online you're most of the way there. If you are familiar with applications like Facebook, MySpace or Twitter, you're totally ready. If not - don't worry - your students will explain more to you when the time comes.
 * **Are you prepared to be online?** Are you online and connected to the internet at least once a day most days of the week? This is important as //you// will be managing student behaviour for your edmodo group. You won't need to actually visit edmodo every day, but you will at least need to read your email most days to monitor edmodo activity.

Learning about edmodo
> //(NSW DEC teacher note: contact us in the Yammer Edmodo group - there are hundred of teachers who can help you).//
 * **First step is to explore edmodo,** You can do it on your own (visit [|www.edmodo.com] and create a teacher account), or sit with a colleague who is already using edmodo.
 * **Create your teacher account** - fill out your profile. Add a photo and write a little bit about yourself.
 * In your profile, set up **Notification** - full email notification is recommended at the start - you can always turn the reporting level down later.
 * **Try to find an edmodo buddy at your school -** it's likely someone else is using or thinking about using edmodo at your school - team up! If you are the first, you could ask someone who is using edmodo at another school to help.
 * **Find out if there is an official school edmodo** (your edmodo buddy should know). If so, the school edmodo administrator will need to approve linking your teacher account to the school name.
 * **Check out the [|edmodo user guide]** - just skim read it for ideas on what is possible. As soon as it looks hard, move on - you'll go there another time - maybe.
 * **Play.** Set up a test class. See if you can write messages. Try uploading some useful files, pictures or links. Find a colleague and get them to join your class.
 * **Set up a dummy student account** so you can test how your edmodo group looks from a student perspective.
 * **Get an idea of the edmodo security model.**
 * **Join an edmodo community group** - groups exist for most KLAs and teaching levels.
 * Visit the edmodo support page.

Try it out with a class

 * **Start small : choose //one// class,** perhaps even just as an experiment for //one// topic. Choose a class you currently have strong rapport with, and feel the students work well together.
 * A class that has one-to-one laptops is ideal.
 * **Just do one or two things with edmodo**. There are many features - you don't have to use them all, or all at once. Maybe just start using edmodo to share links or digital resources.
 * **Do set clear expectation with students:** expectation of student online behaviour, and expectation of how frequently and when you are likely to respond to edmodo messages.

Don't Panic!

 * Edmodo has many features but don't try everything at once - start out simple - get comfortable with that.
 * Don't be afraid to ask students to help you work out how to use edmodo - you will both enjoy the experience.
 * Use the wonderful online support in edmodo - they are very responsive.
 * Use the wonderful teacher community in edmodo - hundreds of teachers in your specialty area are contributing each day to the edmodo community group - a valuable support resource.
 * Then, when you are ready, go back and look at the [|edmodo user guide] to see if you want to, and are ready to, add more to your edmodo repertoire.

Useful Introductory Guides

 * Patrick Cauley's guide to using edmodo []

**My students keep losing their passwords**
 * This is a good opportunity to teach some good online security practices - never give a student an edmodo password - it's their secret.
 * Teachers can reset student passwords for students in their edmodo group in the Mange Group menu without having to know the password. Get the student to come to your screen to type it in and make a bit of a show to emphasise that even you don't know the password. The edmodo application masks the letters being typed, so it remains a secret.
 * Encourage students to link their account to their personal secure email.
 * Some younger students may be worried their password could be stolen and someone will write bad things into the class edmodo using their identity. Reassure students you know their character and if this ever did happen you would work it out. But it won't happen if students keep their password secret and only use their edmodo account on trusted computers.

Co-Teaching

 * edmodo allows you to add extra teachers into your edmodo group - called Co-Teachers.
 * Give the edmodo group code to your colleague. Once they have joined the group, go into the Manage Groups page and change their role to Co-Teacher. They can now perform the same management role (//exactly the same?)// as you.

You may choose to add colleagues who are teaching a similar class group to be co-teachers, even though you are actually the sole teacher for you class. Here are some good reasons why:
 * We get to see what is happening in other classes - very helpful when we have discussions about how our own classes are responding to teaching ideas,
 * We spread the message to our classes of the benefits of working together - if the teachers do it, so can students,
 * It helps having a second pair of eyes if one teacher is away from edmodo or busy.